The Vice President and Minister of Economy, Trade and Enterprise, Carlos Cuerpo, has urged to "tighten" and "press the accelerator button" in the final stretch of the Recovery and Transformation Plan "to take advantage of the funds". At the same time, he has called for "more ambition" from the European Commission in its proposal for the multiannual financial framework 2028-2034 and has stressed that they "will fight" to preserve regional capacity for action.
Cuerpo spoke this Friday in Bilbao at the first edition of the Basque Economic Forum, where the second vice-lehendakari, Mikel Torres, was also present, who raised various current economic issues with him.
In relation to the final phase of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, through which Spain channels the 'Next Generation EU' funds, he emphasized that, beyond European money, there is an "important agenda" of reforms behind it. He highlighted the investments that have allowed "to emerge" from the Covid crisis "without scars" and, at the same time, "to transform" the productive model.
Regarding the impact of these resources, he mentioned the increase in potential growth, which was previously around 1% or 1.5% "at most", and which in recent years has come to be estimated at over 2%, a target that "was an unattainable objective for Spain".
As he explained, the funds have also influenced job creation. If in Spain each year "more or less half a million jobs are created", in the last two and a half years, 50% of the new positions have been concentrated in the five branches with the highest salaries.
Furthermore, he stressed that the Recovery Plan has allowed to lay "the foundations for the future", particularly through the energy strategy, with "greater sovereignty and a network of renewable energy", which strengthens Spain's protection against external shocks "such as the war in Iran".
He recalled that "before 2019, 3 out of every 4 hours of the day the price of electricity was determined by gas, today it is 9% of the hours. This is the decoupling we are achieving by reducing the impact or consequences of the war in Iran and the increase in energy prices".
He also highlighted the commitment to "strategic, future-oriented and innovative" industries. In this area, he stressed that Spain is the third country in the EU where 'startups' are growing the most, and moreover in advanced technological segments.
Cuerpo has stated that "this is another change in the brand image that we are achieving thanks to the funds from the Recovery plan and structural reforms". He also highlighted the labor reform, for its effect on "the quality of employment", and the "Create and Grow" law, which has reduced "administrative hurdles" and has allowed to go from about 8,000 new companies per month to more than 12,000, "a jump of 50%".
"Push" in the final stretch of the Recovery Plan
The vice president has emphasized that, to continue receiving funds, it is essential to comply with obligations, which "come from investing well and reforming". He has warned that the deadline is pressing: projects must be executed before the end of August and the last disbursement will be received until the end of the year, so "we have to push".
In his opinion, it is necessary to "press the accelerator button to be able to take full advantage of these funds". He has specified that administrations must certify compliance with milestones and that companies must also accelerate their investment decisions so as not to miss opportunities.
He has announced, however, that the Government is already "looking beyond" the temporal horizon of the Plan and that part of the resources have been allocated to launch, within the Official Credit Institute (ICO), the "Spain Grows" Fund, with which it is intended to mobilize 120 billion through public-private collaboration. The objective, he said, is to prolong the momentum beyond 2026 so that the Recovery Plan "has not been a mirage of these five years, but that much more is to come".
Debate on the multiannual financial framework 2028-2034
Regarding the negotiation of the new multiannual financial framework 2028-2034, Cuerpo has admitted that the process will be complex. He has alluded to the debate open in the EU "on the need to invest in the major axes of strategic autonomy and to promote industries that are key for the future".
He recalled that the Draghi report estimated investment needs in Europe at 1.2 trillion annually and that, although the revised proposal "intends for it to increase", "it would not even reach two for a period of six years", which, in his opinion, illustrates "the mismatch between these two large figures".
The minister has insisted that "part of this investment need must be covered by private sector financing" and has pointed out that the EU is moving forward in "strengthening the capital markets union".
Along these lines, he has recalled the meeting held on Thursday between the Economy and Finance ministers of Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Poland and Spain, "to take a decisive step" and in which an agreement was reached "to advance in this capital market union, so that companies have access to greater financing and under better conditions".
However, he has warned that improvements in the Capital Markets Union are not enough and that "we must also advance from the public sector", both at national and European level. "And here we have to be ambitious", he stressed.
After evoking the "success" of the response to Covid through the recovery funds, he has encouraged "to continue along the same lines". In his opinion, "Europe has to be an essential agent of investment and growth" and it is necessary to instill "enormous ambition in the negotiation of these multiannual budgets, which is the financial framework currently being negotiated".
He has criticized that the Commission's current proposal "lowers ambition too much" in the resources allocated to two "essential policies for Spain": the CAP and cohesion policy.
Likewise, he has alluded to the existence of "a large competitiveness fund" designed to "monitor large investment projects" and which, in his opinion, "can be even more ambitious". He has positively valued that the allocation is oriented "to the best and most efficient projects", since "in that case, here we have everything to gain". He considers that Spain will continue to be able to access "many funds in Europe", although he believes that this instrument "should have even greater capacity".
Among the proposals defended by the Government, he has mentioned the need to "rethink" the payment schedule for 'Next Generation' interest, given that the European Commission proposes a "flat" profile with about 24,000 million per year.
"If we put these 24,000 in terms of GDP, in the short term it is a higher percentage than what these 24,000 will represent when we have grown in six years", he explained. Therefore, Cuerpo suggests a "simple change" that would consist of "paying the same proportion of GDP every year, instead of paying the same amount in absolute terms", which, according to his calculation, would directly free up about 90,000 million in that period.
He has acknowledged that the negotiation will be long and complicated and has pointed out as an "essential" issue "to what extent that capacity for action at the regional level will be lost or not".
"We are fighting for it to be maintained, among other things because it is an element of greater efficiency in the allocation, distribution and execution of funds and that gives us wealth," he concluded.